The Lawn Care Calendar for Greener Grass

A lush, thick, green lawn is an aspiration for millions of homeowners – but knowing how to start addressing problems, encourage healthy growth and protect fledgling turf can be very dependent on the season.

Let’s run through our seasonal tips for maintaining a perfect lawn, troubleshooting common issues, and having all the tools you need at hand for an envious garden that looks superb year-round.

The UK Lawn Care Calendar

First, let’s talk about those pesky patches and shady areas that never seem ideal for cultivating healthy grass.

Once you’re in the high summer and spot bald patches, yellow growth or slow-moving areas, it’s probably too late to make a substantial difference in the next few weeks – the key is always in preparation.

It takes time to manage a lawn, and help it recover from damage, with over-mowing at the wrong time of year one of the primary reasons the grass doesn’t seem to regrow.

Autumn Lawn Care Tasks

At this time of year, you need to start thinking about autumn maintenance and preserving your current lawn throughout the winter – even if it still feels reasonably warm.

Days gradually become slightly cooler, and nights longer, so this is a good time to scarify your lawn, where you remove debris and create small cuts in the lawn that allows water to filter through to your soil.

You can remove moss growing up between the grass and stimulate new shoots to grow, creating a greener and thicker lawn. It’s also a good time to aerate your grassy areas, but hold off if the heat is still summery since you don’t want to move too early and risk drying out the grass.

Now is also the point when you want to change to a winter lawn food with lower nitrogen levels but plenty of potassium and phosphorus. The idea is to keep the roots healthy and prevent leaves from growing.

You’ll need to start raking in October, removing leaves and debris every couple of days, so they don’t block the light and mow perhaps twice a month.

Winter Lawn Care Tasks

When the cold snaps set in, you’ll not need too much in the way of feeding or aerating (it’ll be too late), but you need to try and avoid walking on the grass when it is frozen, and if you can move furniture or toys into storage you’ll prevent the grass from wilting.

In December, the lawn care jobs on your list will be few and far between, so it’s best to consider what you want to achieve in the spring ahead.

You won’t need to mow for a good few weeks, but you can use the downtime to service your lawn mower or buy a new one, sharpen blades and keep your edging tools in great condition.

If January is mild, you can aerate the lawn a little to boost drainage, but avoid doing too much before the soil is warmer.

Heading into February, you have free reign to start lawn repairs, provided the soil isn’t still frozen.

You can:

Lay new sections of turf
Order lawn feed for the spring
Pick up your new grass seed
Give the lawn a gentle trim (later on in the month)
Shape the edges of your grass

This work will leave you in a great position to start mowing in March when the real growth begins, use your spring feed, and treat moss growth with a little scarification.

If there is any frost in March, avoid overly excessive mowing because you want just a soft trim to take off the tips of the blades to encourage better growth.

Spring Lawn Care Tasks

The spring is like a breath of fresh air in many ways, and you’ll need to ramp up your mowing to around once a week, ensuring you don’t overdo it.

Now is your last chance to add a spring feed or weed treatment, and start seeding any bare spots you’ve been wanting to address.

In May, you’ll need to reduce your blade height on your mower, keep checking for weeds and apply a herbicide where necessary.

Summer Lawn Care Tasks

As we approach the glorious heights of summer, you’ll likely be using your lawn far more, but it’s best to move furniture and rugs around as often as possible so that the grass underneath doesn’t become flattened and damaged.

Little and often is the key to great summer moving, rather than forgetting about the grass until it has become overgrown and giving it an aggressive mow.

If your lawn needs feeding, try to add fertiliser before it rains because the granules should be watered in to avoid scorching the grass in damper weather.

You can also use a hosepipe to dampen the lawn to dissolve your fertiliser, or collect water in a rain butt or repurpose excess water from a condenser tumble dryer in a hosepipe ban.

July tends to be dry, and you might see some yellowing, which isn’t a big problem for an established lawn – heat and lack of rain inevitably make grass a little less colourful.

If you have a new lawn, you’ll need to be more conscious of watering since newly turfed grass may not survive drought without a little TLC.

In August, you’ll need to be equally careful not to mow the grass too short since longer blades can better cope with dry conditions and wear and tear.